Another Western sponsored UN resolution to put sanctions on Syria has resulted in another Russian and Chinese veto. And so the slaughter of Syrian civilians continues. Syria is filled with minorities. Alawite Muslims, a distinct minority, have ruled Syria for over forty years, and if the Turkish and Saudi back Sunnis win the civil war every Alawite man, woman and child will be put to the sword. Syrian Christians, to the number of one hundred thousand will also be exterminated unless a safe haven is provided by European or American troops. Israel is ready for anything, and the region is about to explode. But what is the Russian angle to this? Why does Putin seem determined to see the Syrian civil war through to the end?

The sun comes up as the world turns

And watchers on surrounding hills

Look on in awe as Assad burns

And corpses count the daily kills

The Russkies seem to see no harm

In letting things play to the end

The Chinese too have bet the farm

That Western Will will shortly bend

And somehow Assad will be saved

And owe his life and crown to them

The road to oil rich land then paved

Perhaps that is the stratagem

If not what is the game they play

What’s in it for the Russian Bear

What profits China end of day

What is behind the Putin stare

A conflagration that ignites

The region so that all implodes

And legions then of Russian knights

Can sell to China tanker loads

It’s all so cynical a ploy

But maybe there is more than this

It could be mama Putin’s boy

Is puckering a goodbye kiss